The Weeds.
The Business Garden Series – Part 4Distraction, discernment, choice points
As I am sitting down to type this fourth chapter of the Business Garden series, it’s raining sideways. I have found one single chair on the veranda dry enough to sit on, in a narrow spot where the roof covers the space just enough to leave a rain-free corridor.
It’s summer, but I am shivering despite the jumper and woolly coat on top, wind blowing harshly, grey skies above.
The rain makes me want to curl up into a ball and nap in front of the fireplace, just like my cats, but this essay draws me out into the garden, braving the weather.
And it draws them, too – the core metaphor of this piece: the Weeds.
Just when Growth is at its strongest, after a day of coolness and heavy rain like today, the weeds also show up. Everywhere.
You notice them when you step out into the vegetable patches to check on your crop. You marvel at the potatoes flowering, the kale growing strong, the carrots nearly ready for harvest, and then your vision shifts to all that has taken root in between your seedlings, your ideas.
Things you didn’t plant.
Like when I took a closer look at the rows of potatoes, and discovered bindweed that had grown high into the plants, strangling the stems. Or when some of the carrots I was so glad to see growing strongly turned out not to be carrots at all.
Sometimes the weeds are easy to spot.
Sometimes they look just like something you planted on purpose.
And sometimes, what you deemed a weed turns out to be the exact healing plant you need – like when I found an abundance of mugwort growing in the flower beds south of the house, the very herb I had been needing to rebalance my cycle and improve my sleep. It is true that sometimes what you need grows right in front of your door.
And yet, sometimes the weeds are less kind than the mugwort was to me. Taking nutrition from what you have been working hard to grow, and, in the worst case, taking over the place.
Weeds come into your business from all sorts of places.
A mentor’s metric that falls into your soil, growing root, even though it was never right for you. A scroll on Instagram that fires off a whole seed packet of nonsense that everyone else is doing, fertilised by anxious thoughts, questioning whether you should do those things, too. An old belief that sneaks in over and over again, like the nettles in my flowerbeds, pulling you into patterns you have long wanted to resolve.
None of it is hostile.
It just landed in your soil when you weren’t looking. The way doubt tends to: sneakily, quietly joining the table when attention is elsewhere. Like my cat, when she sneaks onto the dining table and starts dismantling the wildflower bouquet I had carefully arranged, just when I turn away to tend to the boiling kettle…
And thus, it’s time to step into the garden again, and get your hands dirty. Examining what grows. Checking roots. Pulling out what takes over, leaving what supports.
But what do you do with those nettles and bindweeds, once you have removed them from the beds?
I love the practice of what is known in Swedish as täckodling. To reduce the need for watering and the growth of weeds, you cover the soil with mulch, compost, and plants – like the weeds you have removed, as long as they don’t bear seeds. Instead of discarding them, they become literal food for your ideas, helping them grow and supporting the soil around them to be healthy and happy!
This is what I believe we need to do with “business-weeds” as well. There’s no need for RoundUp. You don’t need pesticides to combat what you don’t desire to grow in your business garden, instead you need a little patience, a good eye for truth, and a solid idea of what your working with: your essence, your vision, and your dream. This clarity allows you to know what serves your garden’s soil and climate, and what you’re better off removing.
And the remains: you compost them, recycle them as insights and learnings about creating harmony and balance in your garden.
Weeding, of course, isn’t one-off task. It’s a regular practice. I no longer see it as an unwelcome duty to be performed at certain times, but rather a gentle check-in with myself, and my work. A ritual of asking questions, and anchoring into my own roots.
What is working? What isn’t?
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What do I want to grow here in the long term? Which plants – which beliefs – help me achieve that?
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What does my soil need to stay healthy?
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How can I create enough space for my ideas to thrive?
You come back to the space, again and again. Listening. Watching. Caring.
And you don’t need to fight all of the world’s noise to keep your business garden clear of unwanted weeds. Instead, you create a practice of noticing what is yours and what isn’t, before it takes root.
Sometimes it takes a lot of time and patience to free your business garden from certain weeds. Just like the Japanese knotweed that is growing alongside the fence of our garden. A wildly invasive species, extremely resilient, it is notoriously difficult to get rid off. With pesticides being off the table for us, we are taking the slow approach to working with it: for years to come, we will pull out the shoots, week after week, until the plant eventually tires. Freeing ourselves from beliefs that are steeped in a lifetime spent in patriarchal, capitalist systems can be just as hard.
So be gentle on yourself as you go out into your business garden, weeding. Remembering that each plant you remove is a contributor to your awareness and your to your dream, too.
Saying no to something, after all, is just as important as saying yes.
Let’s have coffee together in my garden! Well, virtually at least. Join me for a free 30 minutes Business Garden Consultation, where we check in where you’re at, what your Business Garden needs right now, and what weeds you need to pull out to give your growing ideas the space they need to thrive.